INTERCONNECTS

SC2003, the annual conference on high-performance computing and networking, concluded Friday, Nov. 21, with record numbers for overall attendance, exhibit space sold, technical program registration and tutorials attendance. "In a word, SC2003 was outstanding," said General Chair James R. McGraw of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "But the best measure of our success was reflected in the positive feedback we heard regularly from people attending the conference." SC2003 attracted 7,641 registered attendees, exceeding by more than 300 the record set by SC2002 in Baltimore. Attendees came from 43 countries, with participants from outside the U.S. constituting 16 percent of total attendance. The conference includes both a four-day technical program and an extensive exhibition. The SC2003 Technical Program drew 2,390 paid participants, passing the previous record of 2,192 set in Baltimore. The exhibition featured 219 industry and research booths, covering 99,250 square feet in the Phoenix Civic Plaza Convention Center. As the conference was in full swing on Wednesday, exhibitors began selecting their space for SC2004 in Pittsburgh. By Friday morning, the conference had pre-sold 44,400 square feet of booth space to 103 exhibitors for next year, surpassing the record-setting 36,100 square feet sold to 74 companies last year in Baltimore for SC2003. Next year, SC2004 will be held November 6-12 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The series of SC conferences is sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society and by the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture. More information can be found at: http://www.sc-conference.org/sc2003/